Olympics Stifles Athletes’ Free Speech

cross posted from The Dream Antilles

The IOC (the “International Olympic Committee”), the group that runs the Olympics, has figured out how to prevent participating athletes from demonstrating for Tibetan freedom and displeasing their Chinese hosts.  The age old tactic: a “chilling effect” on free speech.

It’s relatively simple: the IOC tells athletes that they have a right to free speech, but they don’t have the right to make “propaganda.”  IOC won’t define line between the two.  But if an athlete so much as steps even with one toe into the latter, s/he’s out. of. here.  Goodbye.  Put simply, the IOC doesn’t need explicitly to forbid certain kinds of free speech.  It can accomplish the same, desired result by harshly and intentionally chilling it.

A definition of “chilling effect”:

A chilling effect is a term in United States law that describes a situation where speech or conduct is suppressed or limited by fear of penalization at the hands of an individual or group.

And that, folks, is precisely what’s going on with athletes’ free speech at the Beijing Olympics.  

The Times reports:

Athletes who display Tibetan flags at Olympic venues – including in their own rooms – could be expelled from this summer’s Games in Beijing under anti-propaganda rules.

Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said that competitors were free to express their political views but faced sanctions if they indulged in propaganda.

Got that?  Expression of political views: good.  Indulging in propaganda: bad.

But, you’re asking, is there a difference between the two? How does one know if one is expressing free speech or propagandizing?  What’s the difference?

The question of what will constitute propaganda when the Games are on in August and what will be considered opinion under IOC rules is one vexing many in the Olympic movement. The Olympic Charter bans any kind of “demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda” in any Olympic venue or area.  /snip

The IOC did not specify whether a Chinese athlete or a foreign competitor of Tibetan origin flying the Tibetan flag would be regarded as patriotic or propagandist. A spokeswoman said that there had been no discussion internally or with the Chinese authorities about use of the Tibetan national flag. Asked whether athletes would be allowed to hang the flag in their rooms, she said: “The village is an Olympic venue so it falls under the same rules and regulations of any venue which would mean that anything in there would be judged on whether it was a provocative propaganda initiative.”

The fact that the IOC has still not qualified the exact interpretation of “propaganda” means that some athletes remain confused about what they can say during the 16-day event without being sent home or stripped of a medal.

Unfurling Free Tibet banners or wearing Save Darfur T-shirts at Olympic venues are acts likely to be regarded as a breach of the charter, which was introduced after the American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos gave the Black Power salute on the podium at the 1968 Games in Mexico City.

So, as of right now, there’s no official definition of what constitutes “propaganda” and how propaganda might be distinguished from “free speech.”

The consequences of uttering or otherwise expressing “propaganda,” however, are quite dire.  This means that as things stand now, there is an enormous “chilling effect” repressing legitimate, free speech.

No athlete who has trained for his/her entire life is going to jeopardize participation in the Olympics by testing the definition of “propaganda” by hanging a Tibetan flag in a dorm room, by waving the flag on a victory lap, by speaking out about Tibet to the press, by showing a picture of the Dalai Lama, by wearing Tibetan malas, by wearing a Tibet hat or headband or t-shirt. Why?  Because that might be considered to be propaganda by the IOC.

So far, the IOC has been very much China’s lap dog.  As the Times reported:

A spokeswoman said that there had been no discussion internally or with the Chinese authorities about use of the Tibetan national flag.

You might wonder what this question of definition in the IOC rules has to do with China.  In fact, it has everything to do with it.  The IOC does not dare to step on China’s sensitivities about the topic.  In these circumstances, the message to athletes is incredibly simple.  STFU about Tibet.  Or go home.  Free speech be damned.

The IOC doesn’t need to enact a gag rule for its athletes.  That would be assailed as a “prior restraint” on free speech.  No, when the stakes are this high, a harsh “chilling effect” accomplishes precisely the same goal.  So much for the so-called “Olympic ideal.”  

One Foot Out

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

Embedding–great for videoclips, not so much for journalists or critical thinkers.

Unembed yourself.

Don’t completely identify with the representations that you most prefer.

Keep one foot out.

One of the difficulties with this critical distancing, or ironic stance, necessary, imho, for critical thinking, is that it is in tension with the activist need to present unalloyed support for whatever candidate or cause.

While I do believe that any Democratic president would be exponentially better than John McCain, and I am a Barack Obama supporter, I harbor only slim hope that a Dem president and a Dem congress will really accomplish our progressive goals. What will you do in 2012 if/when the Dems have once again disappointed us?

It is still important, imho, to try and progressivize electoral politics, but it is also necessary to keep a critical distance from the entire enterprise itself, indeed from the dominant values of “our” culture itself.

Yes, electoral politics are of extreme importance, but they are also a distraction. As time ticks away, people are being tortured by the US govt, the climate crisis worsens, and millions of people are struggling and suffering more and more.  Crashing the gate is a good goal, but without always applying pressure to the dominant system itself instead of only trying to improve it from within, we will never see the massive change we want need if we as a species are to survive and with justice and dignity.

What am I suggesting? Let us keep up with our political activism and our determination to improve politics from within the system, but let’s also always be aware of how we each individually reinforce the very system that we are trying to change. So even if we maintain the distancing necessary to critique our pols, we need to self-distance so we can critique and change our own practices and even some of our deeply held beliefs. I think cultural critique is just as important as electoral reform.

Do you really believe in the climate crisis? Or do you think that lots of it is rhetorical hyperbole to galvanize activism? Do you believe that mindless consumerism fuels all the worst trends of this declining world? Everyday we have the choice to unembed ourselves. To not hop in the car for a solo trip to buy something we don’t really need, for example. Everyday is a new day for our struggle against dehumanizing corporatism to which we all contribute, even if it is only by eating junk food or smoking cigarettes.

This is not a plea for purism. To the contrary, for political purism is a myth that helps continue systems of exploitation. This little ditty is merely a kind of action alert that we are embedded in the very system that we are trying to change, and we need to continually work to unembed ourselves as we also take seriously the fact that we all contribute to our own exploitation. That entanglement may not just be a contingent error that can be eradicated, for this is a very complex problem that involves all kinds of economies–not just financial ones–but also economies of desire and recognition.

We can also think about cultural critique at a larger level. One thing that people are hesitant to confront head-on is overpopulation and how that is the major contributor to this world’s problems. Do you really want to have children? Children of your “own”? Why?

Of course it is not possible or maybe even desirable to unembed yourself completely from the dominant representations, but the work of reform and change is not entirely the province of electoral politics. It is also the work of incessant cultural critique and criticism.

So keep your ironic distance–the space to question authority–even while working in the name of your candidate or your cause.

Keep one foot out.  

Café Discovery

Since I came out, I have been especially active in trying to promote National Coming Out Day in the fall, World AIDS Day on December 1, and Out and Proud festivities at colleges and universities wherever I could reach them.  The latter are usually in the Spring, since Gay Pride events usually are scheduled in the summer when activity on campus is light.

What if they gave an Out and Proud Week and nobody was?  Or maybe it’s just that nobody cared.

We arranged some programs and selected some going on around us and tried to encourage members of our campus community to attend.  There was little interest exhibited.  Not from straight folks.  Not from GLBT folks.  Actually, more straight folks showed up than gay folks…and some of the straight folks clearly hadn’t reached a positive place with regard to the issues.

And some do not understand that issues is plural.

The schedule:

April 5th and 6th GLBT Expo in NYC

FREE Tickets Available at CSLE

Monday, April 7th

Dinner Party in the WSREC @ 8 pm (Call Ext 240 by 4/3 to reserve a spot)

Tuesday, April 8th

1-3 Free Lunch — All God’s Children, a short film followed by a discussion led by Rev. Todd Shumpert

Wednesday, April 9th

8:30 – 6:00 GLBT films shown in Library Screening Room

Both my Moms’ Names are Judy  10 min.

Coming Out Under Fire  71 min.

We Are Dad  68 min.

Flag Wars  87 min.

Freedom to Marry 57 min.

Georgie Girl  52 min.

Straight Acting 56 min.

I Can’t Believe I Married a Lesbian  75 min.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch  91 min.

Mind if I call You “Sir?” 34 min.

Red Rain  60 min.

DEEP/SCEEP students will be presenting “What We Want You To Know”   – a display and poetry reading surrounding both sexual orientation and disabilities in the Science Bldg. lower level, on Wed. from 11:30 – 12:00 and again from 5:30 – 6:00.

Thursday, April 10th

12-1 in WSREC-Free Lunch

“In the Race” focusing on issues of importance to the GLBT Community

8 pm in the Art Gallery

OPEN MIC – bring your poetry or anything else you’d like to share

Saturday, April 12th

Trip to Princeton: “What’s Your Scene? Exposition” 1:00 -4:00

Contact CSLE for details

8 pm at NJPAC — Hip Hop: Out, Loud & Proud II

Sponsored by

Bloomfield College Gay/Non-Gay Alliance

All events are FREE and open to any member of the BC Community

There were three coordinators there for dinner.  Nobody else.  Debbie, me and Bob Deischer.

All God’s Children managed to gather together Debbie, me, Rev. Todd Shumpert, who presented the program, the assistant dean of students (who insists on referring to me as “he”).  Towards the end, one student showed up.  She proceeded to tell us her father was a minister, that choosing to be gay was sinful, and she was there for some other reason.

Almost nobody watched any of the movies on Wednesday.  There was a crowd at the Science Building lower level, but there always is since that’s where the soda and snack machines are.  The non-gay students who ran the program appeared to be doing a good job and I stopped by and thanked them for it on my way to my office.

In the Race was also sparsely attended…and led by someone who starts from the position that anything Obama says and does is good and anything Clinton says or does is bad.  That’s not helpful in this discussion.  I also had to spend way too much time pointing out that Gay Rights are not equivalent to Gay Marriage…which should be called marriage equality rather than the terminology being used.

By the time Thursday evening rolled around, I was too disappointed to go to the open mic.  

At the end of the political session, I tried to summarize what I was feeling.  I’ll try to recapture it.

I understand that we’ve already won the war.  We have successfully made gay rights a matter of opinion and open for discussion.  When that happens, it’s only a matter of time until we win.  And the majority of young people are on our side.  Case closed.  Except…

Except for the fact that there is no reason that people who are alive now and will not be alive at that future date when they will become equal citizens should have to live the rest of their lives being abused.  Having won the war does not mean that there are not still battles worth fighting.  The other side knows they have lost, which is why they have become more vicious with the passage of time.  They wish to inflict revenge for that loss.  Meanwhile, those who we think of as our friends are doing what they always do.  They turn their backs and tell us that they will fix things when the time is better.  Except it never seems to get better, does it?

I am tired of trying to teach people how to treat me better.  It should not be my job.  As long as it is GLBT people fighting for our right to be equal citizens, we can be dismissed.  So I’m thinking it is time for me…maybe even us…to walk away from this issue…and see if there are non-GLBT people who are going to step forward to carry on.

We cannot progress if straight people are not willing to pick up the banner.  It’s a march that has to be undertaken togather, not one you can watch from the sidelines.

I’m Not Bitter – I’m Outraged

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

Any more the bad news comes like the steady downpour of the tropical monsoon.

There is no time to catch one’s breath.

There is no pause to absorb the outrages of the day, no interlude to break the tragedies into digestible chunks, no relief for the overwhelmed between the vicious punches to the gut, the finger jabs to the eyes, the thunder kicks to the groin.

A-Perfect-Storm-of-Bad-News_FLAT

All the bad news seems merely an aperitif to the madness of our ‘leaders’, if only we had to cope with the bad news alone, if only we had real leadership to provide a sane response to regrettable circumstances and events.  If only…

What-we-have-done-in-Iraq

HOW-SHAMEFUL-IS-IT

It seems that gradually over time more and more of our ‘leaders’ have abandoned all but the merest pretense of public service, even as events have eroded their carefully crafted veneers, leaving their naked greed and unabashed self-interest writhing obscenely on the pubic stage.  Please, no one mention the disgusting spectacle and we can all just pretend it’s not happening.

Words like integrity and honor have been reduced to props and disguises for people who have neither to hide behind disingenuously as if they were so many lapel pins in the form of the American flag.

Patriotism

Those things we hold most dear, our freedom, our democracy and our claim to be a nation of laws have been stolen, sullied, abridged or rendered moot.

We have foolishly allowed unethical politicians to steal elections outright – we even tolerated the Supreme Court getting in on the act.  There has been no democracy in the USA since Bush v. Gore in 2000.  There may never be again.

With record low approval ratings for the Bush/Cheney regime and the albatross of an unpopular war hanging from the GOP’s neck, do you think that a Democratic presidential candidate will win the White House, get us out of Iraq, and end our long national nightmare?

Think again – the mighty election theft machine Karl Rove used to steal the US presidency in 2000 and 2004 may be under attack, but it is still in place for the upcoming 2008 election.

BradBlog

The-REAL-Danger

How did we ever become so depraved as to tolerate what has been done in our names?  And if anyone is bitter – so fucking what?  How are we supposed to react to the dismantling of America?  The shipping of our jobs overseas?  The open predation of Big Business on the American people?  The deteriorating condition of our cities, bridges, and national infrastructure?  The growing number of unemployed, uninsured, and homeless Americans?  

How deliriously happy and hopeful are we supposed to be about the trashing of the Geneva Conventions, the shameful abandonment of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, extraordinary renditions, the first official US torture program in history, aggressive war, the rape of the middle class, the looting of the treasury, war profiteering, war crimes and government officials who smugly smile as they blatantly lie to us all with utter impunity?

Bitter?  No.  More like nuclear fucking outrage!  What’s wrong with anyone who doesn’t get that?  Huh Hillary?  What the fuck is wrong with YOU?

If we don’t have the right to be bitter, then our last right has been taken away…not that I’m surprised.  

Heh, I guess I’m just bitter.

JUSTICE-Peace-Out-OPOL

It’s called Karma.

Reading this MyDD analysis of Obama’s rhetorical flub about rural Pennsylvania voters, which would be 100% excellent if not for the writer’s insane devotion to ignoring the apostrophe whenever trying to condense ‘it is’ — which is a shame because otherwise the piece seems well written (for that it’s earned a mere 99% for its grammatical apathy), I couldn’t help but feel that the senator supposedly representing Illinois is facing a bit of Karmic justice.

People have a right to be angry that their religion and their values have been manipulated time and again to cover for a corrupt and inefficient Republican party. They also have a right to be angry that when a politician actually acknowledges that people are being played, McCain completely ignores the context of the statement itself and goes for the easy attack. Its much easier to brand someone “elitist” and walk away without addressing the actual issues they brought up. Since yesterday “elitist” seems to have become the new insult du jour. Why address the meat of the issue when you can shellac a questionable persona on someone, regardless of its truth, and just discount the individual along with their words entirely out of hand?

The writer happens to mention Obama’s former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, in the following paragraph.  Hence my feeling of Karmic justice contained within what’s happening to the senator.  For did not Barack Obama walk away from Wright’s message about what America has done to the world and to its minority members, having dismissed it all as the ramblings of a bitter old Black man?  As pointed out by The Progressive’s Kevin Alexander Gray:

[W]hile Obama gets points for not tossing his church pastor under the bus, he loses points for running away from the critique of American empire-building and oppression that his pastor offered.

Obama fobbed off his preacher’s entire sermon as an expression of the “anger and bitterness” of an older generation of black men.

What Obama refused to say was that Wright made some solid points: about the genocide of the Native Americans, the immorality of dropping atom bombs on Japanese civilians in World II, the killing of millions of Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians, and the deaths so far of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.

So now Barack Obama is paying the price, courtesy of a higher plane of justice than anything we mortals care to provide on our own initiative, for his blithe dismissal of what Jeremiah Wright was trying to explain to his congregation.  Just as Obama so flippantly zeroed in on his former pastor’s delivery, ignoring the legitimate message of America’s darker side, so too are the media, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, and worst of all the voters, now focusing their anger and contempt on his choice of words.

I imagine that somewhere Mr. Wright is chuckling to himself at how what goes around, comes around.

Power

Some might define power as being able to get what you want. But as Mick told us so many years ago…

I think many of us are feeling pretty powerless these days to affect change in our country. So I thought it would be interesting to have a little conversation about power and the different ways it works. I’ll share a little of my experience and hope you will chime in down below in the comments.

Most of our conceptions about power stem from a basic acceptance of hierarchy. It is the classic patriarchal view of power. In other words, someone has power if they have power over someone or something. Its the model I was taught about relationships in the church.

But if any of you lived in a household that was similarly structured, you might have the same experience I did, which was that Mom had a way of getting what she wanted too. In other words, she had power, but it tended to be covert in comparison to Dad’s overt power. This leads me to think that we all have power in some form or another. Its just a question of whether or not we claim it overtly.

The reality is, the only real power we have is over ourselves. Anytime we have power “over” someone else, its because they’ve given it to us. This is the classic assumption behind all theories of non-violent resistance…we have the power to choose whether or not we cooperate with those who would attempt to control us. In the end, they can beat us up, put us in jail, or kill us, but they can’t force us to comply with their wishes.

In my professional life, I’ve been having some interesting discussions that have taught me another aspect of power. As many of you know, I’m the director of a small non-profit. Most of our funding comes from our county government in the form of contracts for service. Our county has a budget of over $570 million per year as compared to our agency’s $1.5 million. In a hierarchical way of seeing things then, it would appear as if the county had all the power to tell us what to do.

But what we have discovered is that the county needs us. We can do things they can’t do and in ways they can’t do them. Occasionally in negotiations, we’ve had to point that out to them in both subtle and not-so-subtle ways. One of the most powerful ways we did that was by walking away from a contract that we thought compromised our mission and values. Through that process, we changed the dynamic of the relationship from one of power-over to one of partnership. By identifying what each party brought to the table that the other one needed, we each claimed our own power and can work together to reach common goals.

I tell you all that because I think its a critical ingredient to the identification of any kind of power. You need to know two things:

1. What do people need from you, and

2. What do you bring to the table.

If we apply this to our political situation, we often limit ourselves to thinking that our only power is our vote. That is certainly something we bring to the table and it appears to be something politicians need from us. But there are two problems with this. First of all, there aren’t enough of us voting our way to carry the day. This is one of the biggest reasons we feel powerless these days I think. We can keep trying to convince others to join us, but both the MSM and time are not on our side right now. And secondly, the reality is that too many politicians believe (and perhaps accurately so in the current system) that they need money more than they need our vote. Goddess knows I don’t have access to those kinds of resources, nor do many of you I suspect.

If that’s the case, what is it that we have that our elected officials need from us? I must admit that I’m rather stumped on that one. A few months ago I talked about the idea that if we could ever figure that one out, we’d have hit the “sweet spot” and the whole system would likely react to try to shut us down…and fast.

Could it be that to the MICMC we are expendable? That is certainly what David Simon, creator of HBO’s “The Wire” is implying.  I think we need to be willing to honestly ask ourselves that question and face the truth of the answer. If we are expendable, then continuing to play the game their way means that we become merely enablers of the system that is exploiting us. And its time to walk away, reclaim our power, and save ourselves.

And if we’re not expendable, we need to identify that “sweet spot” and crank up the noise. Got any ideas?

Palm open, fingers outstretched.

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

One of the very first film scripts I ever wrote contained the following exchange between a twelve year-old son (Christopher) and his father (Aaron):

AARON: Open your hand.

Aaron places a stone into Christopher’s palm; its smooth, sanded granite.

CHRISTOPHER: (confused) It’s a rock.

AARON: No. It’s your ability to love.

Christopher looks up.

AARON: Given to you at birth. Yours to offer up to others. You’ll say, “Look at this. Isn’t it something. Take it. Hold it.” Some will treasure it. Most will abuse it. They’ll scratch it or bust off a chunk. They’ll take another’s stone without ever telling and then they’ll cast yours aside. And each time you get hurt, you’ll naturally want to share it less and you might even be tempted to ball your hand  into a fist and lock it away for good. Don’t do that, Christopher. That’s death.

CHRISTOPHER: Death?

AARON: Close your palm up and you’re no longer living.

Aaron spreads Christopher’s fingers.

AARON: This is how you live your life. Palm open, fingers outstretched.

I dig out this scene, first because it means a great deal to me… I happen to believe the above sentiments and have tried to live my life as such (surely failing infinitely more times than I’ve succeeded)… and second because it is why I reject what has become the closing argument for many of those who caution against Barack Obama’s candidacy.

This argument is simply…

               “Don’t be inspired. Don’t be fooled. You’re setting yourself up to be hurt.”

He’s just another politician… all he offers is rhetoric… speeches are just words…

               “Don’t be inspired. Don’t be fooled. You’re setting yourself up to be hurt.”

Use your inside voice… stop with the music videos… “cult of personality”…

                “Don’t be inspired. Don’t be fooled. You’re setting yourself up to be hurt.”

The idea is that those inspired are simply expecting too much, projecting our hopes and dreams onto a flesh and blood human who will ultimately come up woefully short and crush us all in the process.

And to this I say… yes, we are.

Will we be disappointed… yes, we will.

Will a President Obama come up short… of course, he will.

Is he just a a man… just a politician… an utterly fallible one of us… yes, yes, yes.

It is not DESPITE the above, but IN FULL UNDERSTANDING that I find myself compelled to wish and wonder, because living… real living… in a human or romantic or even political sense… is not about removing risk and pain from one’s lives, but instead accepting that risk and pain as an unavoidable byproduct of existence and, in so doing, opening oneself up to the possibility that something remarkable might happen anyway.

You see nothing glorious and unexpected is ever handed to those with clenched fists; to those who rightfully, understandably, justifiably, and yet to their own detriment, try and avoid let down by rejecting the very prospect.

That’s the definition of death… or at least death of the soul.

And its important to me that no one equates the above with the suggestion that voting for Hillary Clinton is death.

There are many, many people who are inspired by HER in the same way that I am inspired by Barack Obama.

I’m only talking about those who discount EITHER candidacy based simply on the concept that enthusiasm and passion are inherently foolish and misguided.

Enthusiasm and passion are simply the external signs of faith.

Not faith a God, but faith in self; faith that its possible to endure what might feel like unending disappointment and yet still open one’s palm, outstretch one’s fingers and offer up hope.

Pony Party: Sunday music retrospective

Creedence Clearwater Revival



Bad Moon Rising



Have you ever seen the rain?



Who’ll Stop the Rain



Lodi

Please do not recommend a Pony Party when you see one.  There will be another along in a few hours.  There are better essays to read and recommend.

LOCK THEM UP!

I haven’t put together a video to song in awhile, than I came across “Lock Them Up”

The song in video is by ‘Nam Veteran Pat Scanlon brother member of Vietnam Veterans Against The War and Veterans For Peace.

After viewing you might want to hear another of Pat’s songs Blue State Liberal, the link will bring up the mp3 in your player.

Awhile back I put together another video presentation of another of Pat’s songs with photo’s of our Memorial ‘Arlington South’ on Memorial Day in Statesville NC

“Where Is The Rage”


with discription at the google video site

Visit Pat’s site for more info on him as well as some other songs.

Arrest Warrant for Bush/Cheney

What do ya Say Folks, Defend The Constitution, Or Stay In The Gutter, Heading Down The Storm Drain, They Placed Our Country and Citizens!!

The following link on Amazon.com will allow readers to

pre-order copies of the Winter Soldier book coming

this fall.


Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan: Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupations

“Victory means exit strategy, and it’s important for the president to explain to us what the exit strategy is,” – George W. Bush, Texas Gov., 1999

Pony Party: Sunday music retrospective

Creedence Clearwater Revival



Bad Moon Rising



Have you ever seen the rain?



Who’ll Stop the Rain



Lodi

Please do not recommend a Pony Party when you see one.  There will be another along in a few hours.  There are better essays to read and recommend.

Elitist and Out of Touch

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

In the aftermath of Barack Obama’s inflammatory and slanderous insinuation that Americans are frustrated, bitter, and angry; and in response to his outrageous condemnation of Americans for clinging “to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or to anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations”, Hillary Clinton spoke out in passionate defense of these victims of Obama’s shameful slanders and declared that “Senator Obama’s remarks were elitist and out of touch.  They are not reflective of the values and beliefs of Americans.”

Thank you for clearing that up, Hillary.  It’s about time someone called out Obama for being so elitist and out of touch.  He must have inherited those elitist traits from that elitist socialite grandmother of his in Kenya, who’s always parading up and down some fashion show runway in a fancy evening gown from a trendy Paris boutique:

Photobucket

 

According to the latest polls, 19 percent of Americans have real American values and beliefs, but 81 percent are elitist, out of touch subversives who say America is heading in the wrong direction.  Fortunately for America and its hard working journalists, John McCain and Hillary Clinton love America so much they weren’t about to let that out of touch elitist Obama pander for the votes of all those other out of touch elitists.

The Sunday talk show hacks are fired up now.  Bring on the furor!  Cue the outrage!  Saddle up the Pundit Posse and let’s ride!      

Everything was going just fine all across America until these elitist and out of touch Katrina victims started complaining:    

katrina victims

Like Barbara Bush pointed out, they’d never had it so good.  Trent Lott’s porch got wiped out, but did they feel sorry for him?  NO.  Selfish bastards.  They were too busy plotting to cheat FEMA out of trailers so they could live it up in fancy government housing for the rest of their lives to feel sorry for Trent Lott and his $50,000 porch.      

That was bad enough, but then elitist and out of touch widows of elitist and out of touch dead American soldiers started saying we should cut and run from Iraq:  

Greiving

If that ingrate had real American values and beliefs like Hillary and her Beltway friends do, she wouldn’t be moping around feeling sorry for herself, she’d be enlisting in the Army to save Iraq, or would donate some money to help America’s struggling defense industry make it through these tough times.

Give her hell, Hillary.  She deserves it.  If her husband wouldn’t have gotten himself blown up by an IED on his 5th tour in Iraq, those predatory lenders outside his Army base with real American values and beliefs wouldn’t have had to lobby you and your Beltway friends for that Bankruptcy Bill, so they could bring felony fraud charges against her for falling behind on her credit card payments and reducing their profits .00001 percent.  

4,000 elitist and out of touch American soldiers have somehow gotten themselves killed in Iraq despite the experienced leadership of Hillary American Values Clinton and her Beltway friends.  30,000 elitist and out of touch American soldiers have gotten themselves wounded and maimed.  Hundreds of elitist and out of touch American soldiers are emboldening the terrorists by committing suicide.  200,000 elitist and out of touch veterans are flaunting their elitism in our faces by sleeping under bridges.  Tens of thousands of elitist and out of touch Americans have lost their homes and are recklessly blaming the idealistic folks on Wall Street for the mess they’ve gotten themselves into.

So thank God and all the Saints in Heaven that happy Hillary Clinton has her happy finger on the happy pulse of happy America, and can set the record straight when rabble rousers like Obama try to fool Americans into thinking they’ve got some God given right to be angry, bitter, and frustrated just because the economy is in freefall, and their dollar is worth five cents, and their sons and grandsons and great grandsons are going to be dying in Iraq for a hundred years, and their tax money is paying for NSA satellites that spy on them, and for bail outs of Wall street thugs who rob them blind, and for oil company subsidies because $110 a barrel only trickles $30 billion in profits into oil company coffers every 3 months.    

Who could possibly be frustrated, bitter, and angry about that?

This American cat trying to get to Canada before it’s too late sure as hell is . . .

angry cat

Calm down Sanka, the Islamofascists are going to nuke Canada too, so take your time.  

Yeah, I know, all the voters in the focus groups Frank Luntz talks to on national TV know that Democratic voter fraud and secular humanist Christmas haters are the only real problems facing America, but I still think having war criminal torturers running around loose in the White House and a media full of Pravda Prize winners and a Great Depression only one more Wall Street  clusterfuck revelation away are of slightly more concern.

But what do I know, I’m just an out of touch elitist with an anger management  problem.              

         

New blog for Military Spouses and those who support them

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

We would like to have anyone come visit a brand new blog established for military spouses to discuss issues involving the troops/veterans, their spouses and their families issues. It might be a good idea for this new blog to look into growing their social media presence so they can get more eyes on their content. I hear that Instagram is a useful investment. Many use a followers app to improve their blogs visibility. But I digress.

It is not necessary to be a military spouse to join but it is anticipated that anyone who joins will follow the guidelines outlined on the site. There are some very unique issues and problems that military spouses face both in supporting their spouse and handling the “homefront” and dealing with the VA healthcare system and other military bureaucracies. Anyone might find the discussions interesting.

Carissa Picard, Esq, President of Military Spouses for Change (http://militaryspousesforchange.com/) is heading up this new blog. Carissa has been active in helping military spouses and their families for many years. She has been interviewed on many talk radio shows such as NPR. In addition to being President of Military Spouses for Change and this new blog, Carissa is the wife of a Blackhawk Medivac pilot who served a tour in South America and is due to go to Iraq in June with orders for a 16 month tour. She is also the mother of two young boys.

There are a number of other very active military spouses who have already joined and are participating.

Come on over and check it out.

     Military Spouse Press

Military Spouses Empowering Military Spouses

    www.milspousepress.com

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